The present invention generally relates to devices and techniques for keeping track of and managing personal time schedules, and more particularly to techniques for entering and displaying scheduled events on a computer device for recall by the user. The invention involves an efficient and unique way of entering, displaying, and manipulating time schedules in graphic form on a visual screen display using a pointing device commonly referred to as a "mouse".
Calendar programs for computers are well-known. A typical calendar program will provide for the entry of event data, such as appointments, and to do items, in text form in various user selectable description fields for a selected calendar day. Such programs typically feature the ability to quickly cursor to a selected day, enter complete event descriptions, indicate time of events, and provide various reminder signals, such as a computer generated beep or alarm. While the aforementioned calendar programs enable a user to record and display just about any form of calendar information, such programs are relatively cumbersome to use, especially because the entry screens do not permit simultaneous viewing of previously scheduled events for the same day, and do not readily alert the user to a conflict between different calendared events.
For ease of spotting scheduling conflicts and to permit quick, at-a-glance, calendar status checks, calendar programs have been devised which graphically represent scheduling information. A known form of graphic presentation for scheduling information is a Gantt chart consisting of rows of time bars having a common time scale wherein the timed segments or slot times for described calendar events are marked out as shaded portions on the time bars.
However, existing calendaring programs using the Gantt chart type of display are still relatively cumbersome to use, in that, the user typically must input the calendar data which generates the Gantt chart display on a separate screen, typically a pop-up type of screen. Such screens require a number of entry steps and also temporarily obliterate some or all of the primary screen. Existing calendar programs also suffer from the disadvantage that they generally give no positive indication of a conflict between calendar events other than by comparing the relative positions of the marked out time segments on the Gantt chart.
The present invention overcomes the above drawbacks of existing calendaring programs by providing a personal time management system and method which permits event information to be inputted in graphic form directly onto a primary display screen without the need to pull up a separate, intrusive pop-up screen for entering calendar events. The invention additionally provides a positive indication of a conflict between calendared events which is immediately visually apparent and which does not require a visual comparison between shaded segments of a Gantt chart. The most essential calendaring information can be entered and displayed on a single primary visual display for improved at-a-glance calendar status checks. The personal time management system of the invention will be seen to provide its user with a way to enter calendar information and plan out an entire day on a single screen by entering, or changing an event by an easily made single or double click of a mouse.